Thursday, April 25, 2013

Childhood have dropped a new single "Solemn Skies" and it's a near-euphoric jam. Think that "soaring bit" in "Blue Velvet" stretched into its own tune. It's the sort of song Ashcroft and his Verve boys spent a lifetime trying to write but they just couldn't cut loose and nail it.

"Solemn Skies" is more direct than earlier Childhood cuts, like "Haltija", and it's all the more special for that.

Monday, April 22, 2013

Last Friday (19 April 2013), was BBC Radio Wales'"Wales Music Day" and the Manic Street Preachers recorded a new tune especially for the event. Titled "See It Like Sutherland", the track is an instrumental with hints of early Cocteau Twins and Mogwai in the mix. Throw in a trace of the melodies on the 2nd half of the band's own unheralded masterpiece, Lifeblood, and you've got a wonderful new bit of music from these 3 lads and a clue as to the new direction they're heading into following their brief hiatus.

Saturday, April 20, 2013

Sunday, April 14, 2013

David Grubbs is dropping a new record on April 16. It's called The Plain Where The Palace Stood and it's on Drag City.

After working with Gastr del Sol and Squirrel Bait (among others), David went his own way. This, his 6th record on that label, is a must listen for his followers.

And it's a must listen for fans of challenging post-rock, or those who appreciate tunes that blur the lines between genres.

Additionally, it's a must listen because on this record David's working with Stefanio Pilia (guitar) and Andrea Belfi (drums) from that magnificent Mike Watt-associated record that I reviewed a few months ago.

The record veers from introspective vocal cuts (the wonderfully titled "I Started To Live When My Barber Died") to ambient noise ("Abracadabrant").

There's a sort of seriousness here that recalls The Durutti Column but Grubbs is aiming -- I think -- for a more visceral sort of music. When his vocals drop away, the guitar lines shimmer and slash -- Fripp meets Neil Young.

It's American music, a nod to free jazz from the past as well as a reminder of earlier noise rock pioneers on the U.S. East Coast.

Still, as the subtle "Ornamental Hermit" recalls for us, the music is rough folk. A hint of Americana colliding with quiet thrash.

"Super-Adequate" is all Thurston Moore circa 1988, while "The Hesitation Waltz" is a vocal number of exquisite stillness -- the kind of music a lot of people tried to make at one time, when there was more of a market for this sort of music.

"A View of the Mesa" is Neil Young trying his hand at stoner rock -- like an old QOTSA riff pulled apart and slowed down.

As an album, this is a fairly consistent record. Grubbs has managed to get music that usually rests on the edges of mainstream music to fit into concise packages here. The record admirably melds the avant garde with the alt-rock and the fury in Grubbs' playing is controlled and focused.

Search this site

About Me

I write about stuff I like.
Born in Washington, D.C., in 1967, I spent most of my life in Maryland before I moved to Hong Kong at the very end of 2011. I worked in Kowloon, and lived on Lamma Island, for nearly 3 years, and then I moved back to Maryland with my wife at the end of August 2014. When I was younger, I worked in 3 record stores in College Park, Maryland, from 1987 to 1990 and those jobs gave me a lot of joy, as well as a musical education. I was once a huge fan of the cinema of Hong Kong, especially Shaw Brothers titles. An Anglophile, I still gravitate to British films and music. My youth was spent on Marvel comics, and Starlog and Famous Monsters magazines; Universal and Hammer horror movies; the work of Ray Harryhausen; classic American films of the 1930s; Hanna-Barbera cartoons; music from the glory days of American AM radio; lousy TV reruns; Mego toys; and Godzilla flicks...